Lawyer advertising is a heavily regulated pastime, party because many in the bar regard it as distasteful.

Attorneys should be able to rely on word of mouth, or sober informative ads, to reach clients, and not the sort of provocative, colorful ads common in other industries, the thinking among some bar officials goes.

But attorneys, at least in New York, should have a bit more creative license after the Supreme Court on Monday decided not to intervene in a case that concerned the constitutionality of state rules designed to ban attorney ads that contain unverifiable claims, including the use of nicknames or mottoes that imply an attorney’s ability to obtain results.

Syracuse lawyer James Alexander (pictured), a famous lawyer/advertiser in the state, challenged the ad rules on First Amendment grounds. Alexander’s firm had been using “Heavy Hitters” as a moniker but later abandoned it for fear that it ran afoul of New York rules . . .

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